Deep Run sending three graduates to West Point

By David Weissman, Special to the Citizen

06/28/12

(From left) Ricky Black III, Stephen Brooks and Patrick Gardner

With a 13 percent acceptance rate according to http://www.collegeprowler.com the U,nited States Military Academy at West Point (Army) is one of the most selective colleges in the country. Try telling that to Deep Run High School, which is sending three students – Ricky Black III, Stephen Brooks and Patrick Gardner – from its 2012 graduating class to the prestigious academy.

Brooks and Gardner will be playing together on Army’s baseball team.

“I know baseball helped me get in there, but I wanted to go to a school that was mainly about academics and setting me up for success,” Gardner said, “and West Point is the perfect place to do that.”

Brooks and Gardner have been friends for several years, having played baseball together since before high school, they said. All three students knew each other before, but Brooks and Gardner didn’t talk much with Black until their decisions, they said.

They talk just about every day now, Brooks said.

“Mostly, we talk about the summer boot camp we have to go to,” he said. “They nickname it ‘Beast Barracks,’ which as you can tell, sounds like it’ll be just a heck of a ton of fun.

“A lot of running probably, being in the mud, not showering for a couple weeks, not having any contact with the outside world.”

None of the three have much family background in the military, they said.

“It wasn’t something I heard about growing up,” Black said.

Each has his own unique reasons for the big decision.

Black visited the campus his junior year for a weeklong summer leadership seminar program.

“I really liked everything that they were as far as the physical, the ethics, the mental and decided that was some place I really could see myself,” he said.

Brooks knew he was going to play baseball in college and, though he was talking to some ACC and SEC schools first, started to look at Army after they called him one night, he said.

“I couldn’t really find anything that could match up to what West Point could offer me in regards to academics, ethics, morals [and] the leadership that they preach,” he said.

Gardner really wanted to do something with the military, he said, and felt the baseball team there offered a more family-like feeling than anywhere else he looked.

At 18 years old, all three agreed future employment opportunities were big reasons for their decisions.

“I’m going to have a job when I get out of college,” Brooks said. “We have to serve five years coming out of West Point and so, for those five years, I’ll have a job.”

Gardner added, “A degree from West Point: who’s not going to hire you with that?”

Of course, deciding that they wanted to attend West Point was hardly half the process for an academy known for its strenuous application process.

“First of all, they want to see your transcript, all your grades, SAT scores, other programs you’ve been involved in,” Black said. “But on top of that, you have to be cleared by the Department of Defense Medical Exam Review Board.

“You also have to be physically qualified and do a certain amount of pushups, pull-ups, sit-ups, run a mile.”

A student must also apply to a congressman or senator to get congressionally nominated, Black said. Each congressman and senator has 10 slots for high school hopefuls. All three were nominated by Rep. Eric Cantor, with Gardner also receiving nomination from Sen. Mark Warner.

“Even after you’ve been accepted, you still have to get security clearance, still have to keep your medical records up to date,” Black said. “Like I just had my wisdom teeth taken out, and I’m going to have to send them my dental information so that they know nothing’s wrong.”

Despite all these stresses associated with applying for their top college choice, all three managed to have successful senior campaigns in their respective sports.

Black earned 35 wins for Deep Run’s wrestling team, which has won districts every year he’s been in high school, he said.

Brooks and Gardner were part of Deep Run’s first baseball team ever to win the district title outright in the regular season, according to the team’s head coach, Will Hicks.

Finishing 16-2 in the regular season, the Wildcats won the Colonial District Championship before falling, 5-4, to Cosby High School in the Central Region playoffs.

Both Brooks and Gardner pitched for the team, with Brooks also playing third base and Gardner also playing in the outfield.

“They’re team leaders in their own sense,” Hicks said of his two West Point-bound seniors. “One’s more boisterous [Stephen], the other [Patrick] is a leader by example, but they’re both leaders inside and out.”

The Henricopolis Soil & Water Conservation District will sponsor a tree seedling giveaway on April 2 at Dorey Park Shelter 1 from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and on April 3 at Hermitage High School parking lot from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Bare-root tree seedlings are available to Henrico County residents free of charge for the spring planting season.

The following seedling species will be available: apple, kousa dogwood, red maple, river birch, red osier dogwood, loblolly pine, sycamore, bald cypress, white dogwood and redbud. Quantities are limited and trees are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each participant is allowed up to 10 trees total, not to include more than five of the same species. > Read more.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) recently launched an online directory of permitted bingo games played in Virginia. Listed by locality, more than 400 regular games are available across the state. The directory will be updated monthly and can be found on VDACS’ website at http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/gaming/index.shtml.

“Many Virginia charities, including volunteer rescue squads, booster clubs and programs to feed the homeless, use proceeds from charitable gaming as a tool to support their missions, said Michael Menefee, program manager for VDACS’ Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs. > Read more.

Richmonders Jim Morgan and Dan Stackhouse were married at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Lakeside Mar. 7 month after winning the Say I Do! With OutRVA wedding contest in February. The contest was open to LGBT couples in recognition of Virginia’s marriage equality law, which took effect last fall. The wedding included a package valued at $25,000.

Morgan and Stackhouse, who became engaged last fall on the day marriage equality became the law in Virginia, have been together for 16 years. They were selected from among 40 couples who registered for the contest. The winners were announced at the Say I Do! Dessert Soiree at the Renaissance in Richmond in February. > Read more.

Two events this weekend benefit man’s best friend – a rabies clinic, sponsored by the Glendale Ruritan Club, and an American Red Cross Canine First Aid & CPR workshop at Alpha Dog Club. The fifth annual Shelby Rocks “Cancer is a Drag” Womanless Pageant will benefit the American Cancer Society and a spaghetti luncheon on Sunday will benefit the Eastern Henrico Ruritan Club. Twin Hickory Library will also host a used book sale this weekend with proceeds benefiting The Friends of the Twin Hickory Library. For all our top picks this weekend, click here! > Read more.

In a spot that could be easily overlooked is a surprising, and delicious, Japanese restaurant. In a tiny nook in the shops at the corner of Ridgefield Parkway and Pump Road sits a welcoming, warm and comfortable Asian restaurant called Ichiban, which means “the best.”

The restaurant, tucked between a couple others in the Gleneagles Shopping Center, was so quiet and dark that it was difficult to tell if it was open at 6:30 p.m. on a Monday. When I opened the door, I smiled when I looked inside. > Read more.

Cinderella is the latest from Disney’s new moviemaking battle plan: producing live-action adaptations of all their older classics. Which is a plan that’s had questionable results in the past.

Alice in Wonderland bloated with more Tim Burton goth-pop than the inside of a Hot Topic. Maleficent was a step in the right direction, but the movie couldn’t decide if Maleficent should be a hero or a villain (even if she should obviously be a villain) and muddled itself into mediocrity.

Cinderella is much better. Primarily, because it’s just Cinderella. No radical rebooting. No Tim Burton dreck. It’s the 1950 Disney masterpiece, transposed into live action and left almost entirely untouched. > Read more.

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